Protect Her
by Lunar Resonance
Summary: Iron Man 3 AU. A scene from the movie with Soul as Tony, Maka as Pepper, Black*Star as Happy and Crona as Killian.
1. Chapter 1

Maka strode through Evans Industries, her assistant Tsubaki walking and talking hurriedly beside her. Being CEO before had been busy but now that she had really taken the reins of Evans Industries, it seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong.

She became aware of Tsubaki calling her name. "Hmm, yes, Tsubaki?"

Tsubaki's calm face had an unusually harried look. "Notice all the badges? Black*Star's a great head of security but the fact remains that personnel complaints have shot up by 300%."

Looking at the people she was passing by, Maka noticed that the badge authorizing their right to be here was prominently displayed unlike before. And they all wore a slightly peeved look on their face, clearly fresh from an encounter from the head of security himself.

She shook her head, half-amused and half-exasperated. Entrusting the job of head of security to the man who called himself a god on a daily basis had been a gamble. At least, it wasn't worse.

Turning to Tsubaki, she gave her a smile. "Thank you, Tsubaki. I'll talk to him." With a nod, Tsubaki hurried off to attend to other duties. As Maka walked to the lobby for her next appointment, she heard a distinct booming voice.

"Badge, badge! Hey I'm talking to you! Don't ignore your god of security!" Black*Star moved from person to person in the lobby, a zealous look in his eyes. Maka allowed herself a small smile before turning serious. Black*Star certainly went over and above job expectations.

"Black*Star!" Maka pulled him away from an accosted looking employee. Black*Star craned his neck around Maka, trying to see that the woman displayed her badge in the appropriate fashion.

Maka caught Black*Star's eyes. "Don't you think that you're going a little overboard on this?"

The zeal in his eyes, if anything, burned brighter. "Overboard? Safety is number one around here!"

Giving a little sigh, Maka gave Black*Star a look. "The fact remains, Black*Star, that ever since you became head of security, personnel complainants have soared over 300%."

Black*Star's eyes widened. "That just proves they have something to hide. Who are they?"

Maka's hand itched for a book-sized object. She should have known he would have missed the point. She pointed to a chair. "I've got to go to my next appointment. Just chill, okay?"

Instead of walking to the chair, he followed her to the conference room's door. "And just who is this guy? He's got a creepy bodyguard in _my _lobby."

She placed her hand on the door. "Crona Gorgon. Old friend but kind of a dork. He used to hit on me a lot."

Opening the door, her eyes widened as she took in Crona. He looked different. A lot different.

"Maka!" Crona greeted her with a hug. "Long time, no see!"

Finding her voice, Maka stepped back, aware of Black*Star's laser stare. "Crona, you've changed."

Crona gave a wide smile. "Well, surgery does that. You look great."

Lingering in the doorway, Black*Star gave a loud cough. "Bad-,"

With a glare, Maka cut him off. "Thank you, Black*Star. That will be all." And she closed the door.

Mark 42 was good, quite the upgrade from his other suits but it wasn't good enough. Not enough to protect the one he loved. Frustrated, Soul looked at his suits. They needed to be better. He needed to be better. Stronger. So Ne-so that the past wouldn't happen again.

Taking a break, his reverie was interrupted by the shrill ring of the phone. He walked absent-mindedly through the house. It didn't feel like a home without Maka. He answered the phone. "Talk to me."

A close-up of Black*Star's eye greeted him. He tried and failed to speak in a whisper. "Do you know what I'm looking at right now?"

"Well all I'm looking at right now is a very extreme close-up of your eye."

Black*Star pulled the phone from his face, finally coming into view. "You know I'm not good with technology!"

Soul decided he was thirsty. He strolled to the nearest refridgerator. "And the reason you called me?"

Black*Star's face became even more excited. "Pepper's in a meeting!"

"Oh, how riveting. I don't recall asking you to spy on her." The floor felt cold on his feet, just like how it did when he went through the wormhole. Soul gave himself an internal shake. No need to think about that.

"But you'll find this interesting! It's that Crona guy, the one with that silly idea, what was it…"

"AIM." The memory of the New Year Eve's party are a little hazy but Soul remembered Crona and his crazy idea.

"Yeah!" Black*Star agreed. "And he's changed now. He looks nothing like before."

Soul reached the fridge. "As exciting as this all is, how does this concern me? Maka can handle herself."

"Because something is off. And he has this weird guy in _my _lobby and I don't like it."

With his hand on the door, Soul smirked. "Show me then." He heard the faint pause of buttons and then, "There."

Black*Star's face gazed at him through the phone. "Can you see him now?"

Amused, Soul rolled his eyes. "I'm still staring at your face, dude."

Frustrated, Soul heard Black*Star poking at the screen. "You know I'm hopeless with technology!" Then, Black*Star paused. "Where have you been, man? You're always cooped up in there, tinkering with those suits."

Soul opened the fridge, the phone lax in his hand. "Well hobbies take up time, you know."

Black*Star snorted. "Hobbies, right. I'm still going to keep an eye on this guy. I have a bad feeling about him."

Plucking a drink, he put his phone in the fridge. "I leave the matter in your capable hands."

Leaving the phone and Black*Star's fading voice, he headed back to his workroom. There was one thing he lived for now and he would protect it with his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Maka thought she was seeing things. Perhaps the stress of the day was getting to her. In addition to the meeting with Crona, she had to deal with no less than three crises, one involving the overenthusiastic Black*Star and one very flustered Tsubaki.

But, there was no denying its existence. Placed right in front of where she usually parked her car was one very large stuffed animal, bearing a Merry Christmas card. But of course, Soul had to show off his male perverted side once in a while because there were other…appendages than arms and legs.

Ever so slightly amused, she got out of the car, eyeing the stuffed animal. She made her way to their house. "I'm home!" she called as she opened the door, looking around for Soul.

"Well, hello there." Donned in one of his suits, Soul laid rather suggestively on the couch. Maka smiled and shook her head, pausing to take off her shoes from her aching feet.

"Did you see my present?" Soul sat up.

Maka gave a chuckle, strolling up to him. "It was kind of hard to miss." She rubbed one of her shoulders, tense from stress.

Soul walked behind her and massaged her shoulders. Maka gave a little sigh. True, she wasn't as fond of his suits as the real person but his metal fingers worked magic on the many knots in her muscles.

"Did you like it?"

She smiled. "It's certainly unique."

Turning around, she gave Soul a playful look. "But why don't you take off that mask so I can greet you properly?"

He shook his head. "No can do."

Suddenly suspicious, she gave him a look. "Are you in the workroom?" Without waiting for an answer, she strode to the staircase.

"Nope, you can't come down here, radiation leak." The suit followed her down the stairs. "Uh huh," she said, ignoring Soul. She came to the bottom, finding Soul at his work bench, talking into some machinery that obviously controlled the suit. "Sure there is."

Soul gave a sheepish grin and gave a little wave, the machine mimicking him exactly. "Hi, dear. That little beauty is Mark 42. Promising but still a prototype." He waved his hand. It flew to the opposite side of the room and turned off.

Maka looked at Soul's exhausted face. "Have you been working here all day?"

Soul looked back to his work. "I did take breaks to eat."

Shaking her head, Maka suddenly noticed their dinner for two set out on one of the side tables. Only most of the food was gone. "You ate without me on date night?!" Her fingers gave a twitch for the notebook she always kept on her.

"I didn't know when you were going to be back…it was getting late and…I was hungry," Soul finished rather lamely, shrinking at Maka's cold glare.

Her patience had almost run dry. "You practically live down here and I hardly see you anymore."

Not looking at her as he spoke, Soul's hands trembled a little. "Well things haven't been the same since…that…since _New York_," he bit off the last two words fast, as if he couldn't stand having them in his mouth.

A little sympathy diffused her anger but Maka spoke her feelings- things had gotten way too out of hand. "You don't think I haven't noticed? That I don't notice the way you come down here at night? That you've created more suits in recent times than before? That isn't a hobby, Soul, that's an obsession!"

Maka bit her tongue before she could say something she would regret later. "I'm going to take a shower." She began walking back up the stairs.

"Wait. Please don't go." There was a desperate edge in voice that she hadn't heard before. Maka paused and turned, looking expectantly at him.

His scarlet eyes were slightly widened, giving Soul an almost scared look. "You're right. On all of it." His face worked for a moment, like he was trying to dredge out the words. "I can't sleep. Not since New York. Every time I close my eyes, it's like I'm back there. Like I never left. That nothing will be ever be safe again. And that's why I spend all night down here, working on these suits. Because there's one person that I can't live without with, one person that I want to protect. You."

All the anger drained out of Maka. Walking back down the stairs to Soul, she wrapped her arms around him. She held him for a moment. Then she released him. "I'm going to take a shower."

She enjoyed Soul's confused face for a moment before adding, "And you're coming."

Soul smirked. "Well, that's better."

* * *

Through his suit, Soul looked in stunned horror at the armada of ships around him. Aliens. Grimy, bloody aliens everywhere.

Hiding in their invincible ships in the depths of space, which, thanks to the wormhole, was only a hairsbreadth away from Earth. Where everything he loved was. Which, considering he probably wouldn't make it back through the ever-shrinking wormhole, he would most likely never see again. The screen went black as his suit shut off.

He fell forever.

* * *

Maka woke to Soul thrashing beside her. Heart pounding, she tried calling his name. "Soul. Soul! Wake up!" She laid her hand on his shoulder to shake him awake. Soul's eyes flew open, still lost in the nightmare.

Then a metal gripped her shoulder, pushing her back. She gave a surprised scream as she looked in the blank eyes of Mark 42's mask.

Finally awake, Soul waved his hand and punched the suit apart. "I'm sorry, I must have summoned it in my sleep…"

Maka had had enough for one night. "I-I'm going to sleep on the couch." Grabbing a blanket, she left the room.

* * *

Soul ran his hands through his hair, breathing shakily. He didn't blame Maka. Things had gotten out of control when he summoned Mark 42 in his sleep.

Lying down, he traced the scar across his chest, a friendly reminder of New York, to the arc reactor above his heart. His heart was still there all right, still beating a nervous rhythm. So, why did he feel so hollow?


	3. Chapter 3

Soul had never seen Black*Star so still. The only sign that he was still alive was the forced rise and fall of his chest as the ventilator pumped air in his lungs. _Lungs that had never needed help to breathe before, _he thought darkly.

Maka had been there when he had gotten the call. She had seen how his face had darkened and what it meant. Grabbing his face, she had looked into his eyes and simply said, "It's not your fault."

He had nodded, knowing she was right, and then gone off to see Black*Star.

But looking at Black*Star's face, devoid of his animated spirit, had brought back the flood of guilt. He had been so preoccupied with his armor, with protecting what he loved that he had let the threat go unnoticed right under his nose. And now Black*Star was fighting for his life. Some protector he was.

Who was going to be next?

Soul clenched his fist, speaking out loud even though Black*Star couldn't hear him. "I'll find who did this to, I promise," he vowed.

He sat in the chair by Black*Star's bed for a few minutes before the nurse came in. Stepping in the small room, she apologetically said, "Visiting hours are over. I'm afraid you'll have to leave."

Getting heavily to his feet, Soul gave a final look to Black*Star. The nurse began to change the channel of the small TV sitting in the corner of the room. Soul stopped her. "Downton Abbey is his favorite. He doesn't like missing it." The nurse smiled. "Of course."

Slowly, he made his way to the elevator.

* * *

He was alone in the elevator. It was too quiet. He would have preferred another person to awkwardly not to talk to than this. It was too small. He should have taken the stairs.

Leaning against the wall of the elevator, he squeezed his eyes shut. Instead of seeing himself falling in space, he saw Black*Star's pallid face.

More nightmares to haunt him.

He forced his eyes open. The silence seemed to taunt him and he could almost hear the demon that liked to stalk his dreams. "It was your fault."

The elevator had barely opened when he rushed out of it, a bundle of nerves and anxiety. All he wanted to do was go home.

* * *

In hindsight, maybe that was why he did it. He groaned as he saw the reporters swarming around his car, like moths to a flame.

Soul was able to ignore most of them, a constant cry of "Blah, blah, Mandarin!" coming from their mouths like a magpie's calls. He almost made it safely to his car, when one extremely pushy, blond pretty boy shoved his phone in his face. "Are you too afraid to face the Mandarin?"

Soul paused, his hand falling from the car door's handle. He turned around slowly to face the reporter. Coldly, he addressed him. "You want an answer?" The reporter nodded eagerly.

"Here's my message to the Mandarin. My name is Soul Evans and I am not afraid of you. You're a coward to send others to do your dirty work. And you've just signed your death certifcate, pal. If you happen to be a man at all, come and face me. 10880 Malibu Point. I'll leave the door open so you don't have to send someone to break it down."

He lifted the eyes to the smug-looking pretty boy. "That's what you wanted, right?"

Plucking the phone from the reporter's still outstretched hand, he threw it against the hospital's wall, the phone smashing to bits. The smug look dropped from the reporter's face. Soul opened the car door. "Bill me."

Getting in the car, he closed the door and sped away.

* * *

Admittedly, the chop he had gotten from the head from Maka for being "a reckless and impulsive idiot" wasn't pleasant. But she had hugged him afterward and was working upstairs and that meant more to Soul than she knew.

Soul studied the virtual scene of the explosion JARVIS had acquired. He zoomed in on the aftermath of the explosion, Black*Star's unconscious body lay prone on the floor.

With a wave of his hand the scene moved to the floor, Soul blew up the scene. He walked to stand next to Black*Star. "Talk to me, buddy," Soul murmured.

Black*Star's arm seemed to be reaching out to something. His eyes followed the direction Black*Star pointed in. A virtual set of military tags, charred, lay just beyond the reach of Black*Star's fingers.

Another wave of his hands removed the tags from the floor and onto the steel workbench. "Whatcha got for me, JARVIS?"

"Private Giriko Donovan. Killed in an explosion a couple years ago, sir." Soul furrowed his brow in confusion. It was strange for a dead man's tags to be found at this scene but it didn't seem to explain anything.

He hopped onto the bench, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. "What about the details of the explosion?"

"That was quite peculiar, sir. The temperature reached 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Quite an excessive heat for this explosion."

For a moment, Soul considered. "JARVIS, bring up a map of the explosions since the Mandarin started his spree." An orange virtual map of the United States popped into being, bars dotting the expanse of the map.

"Now take off the ones by the Mandarin." Some bars disappeared off the map. "Now which explosions match the temperature given off by this one." All but one bar vanished.

Soul eyed the bar. "And where was this?"

"Rosewood, Tennessee, sir. A small town near a military base."

Soul perked up. "And where was Donovan stationed?"

"In that very same base, sir."

Soul slid from the bench. "Make a flight plan for Tennessee, JARVIS."

"Right away, sir."

Running a hand through his hair, Soul wondered how he was going to break this to Maka. She certainly wouldn't like it. His ruminations of impending Maka chops was broken the piercing ring of the doorbell.

His heart leaping in his throat, he took the stairs by two's.

He reached the door before Maka. Opening the door, he wasn't greeted by a missile but by a pair of brown eyes. Somehow the missile might have been better.

He spun from the open door, Maya following him in. Not that he let her know he recognized her. "JARVIS, what happened to maximum security?"

Maya answered drily, "Weren't you the one who gave the Mandarin an open invitation?"

"Quite right, sir," JARVIS chimed in.

Soul restrained his eyes from rolling. "So how can I help you?"

Maya faltered for a moment. "You don't remember me?"

At that moment, Maka walked in from the depths of the house to stand next to Soul. "Who's this, Soul?"

"Maya Hansen, genius botanist. We met years ago." Maya closed her mouth to answer at Soul's sudden regained memory.

Maka laughed. "Ahh, another one of Soul's one-night flings." She waved a hand at Maya's stricken face. "Don't worry, you have to get used to it when Soul Evans is your boyfriend." She gave an affectionate but slightly forceful punch on the arm.

She turned from the two to get water from the kitchen. "So why are you here anyways? Not here to tell Soul about his long-lost son, are you?"

Soul laughed but muttered to Maya. "There really isn't an eleven year old kid waiting in the car, is there?"

Maya gave him a look. "He's twelve, actually." Soul paled and she laughed. "Just kidding."

"Haha," he said weakly.

Walking further into the living room, Maya caught sight of Maka's "gift." "Um, is that…"?

"It's quite something, isn't it?" Maka said as she returned from the kitchen.

Maya nodded faintly.

Resuming her spot next to Soul, Maka asked, "Not to be rude, but what is one of Soul's old girlfriends doing here?"

Maya's face grew serious. "I came to warn you about the Mandarin. He's com-,"

The shattering of the windows overlooking the oceans as the missile hit cut off whatever she was going to say.

* * *

It seemed to all happen in slow motion to Soul.

One. They were standing in the living room.

Two. They were thrown in the air. The only thing he could see was Maka, unprotected.

Three. _"Not her."_ A wave of his hands, not to him. To her.


End file.
